What does "full cost of the Trip" mean?

Definitely doing that... anyway. I also comparison shop between different brokers. The two I'm checking offer different sets of insurers. Of course, so far Steve hasn't contradicting his associate, so I have no good reason to be dissatisfied with his brokerage yet. The associate only contradicted Geezer. Perhaps my earlier comments reflected me putting too much credence on what Geezer posted, which matched the way I read the poorly written words, but conflicted with what Steve's associate said.

 

Sorry, but we get our policies from Steve, and I contacted him late yesterday.

 

He did not get any calls from anyone yesterday about this or anything (including us; it was email) because he is sick, by the way.

 

He definitely agrees that our policies (again, we can NOT speak for all policies) DO require covering all 'payments' (refundable or not).

 

MANY others here have the same types of policies and have described them in many different threads.

 

We hope you find some policies that work for you, and that you find an insurer who is satisfactory.

 

We happen to use Travel Insured.

 

But we would very much like to know which policy (which insurer) offers pre-existing conditions to be covered, with coverage for smaller amounts than are actually paid (perhaps only non-refundable, for example).

That would be terrific, because the main risk is the medical, so if paying less for coverage... doesn't change the medical coverage... *great*!

 

I'm sure others would like to know also.

 

Thank you.

I've just read the last few posts. My experience with having pre-existing conditions covered with TravelGuard is that you MUST insure all costs, even refundable ones, or you will lose this coverage. I've only purchased policies from TravelGuard and Travelsafe, so I don't know anything about any others.

 

I usually purchase insurance within the required time period after making the first deposit toward a trip, to obtain pre-existing condition coverage, so I don't have to worry about this.

He did not get any calls from anyone yesterday about this or anything (including us; it was email) because he is sick, by the way.

I spoke to Becky.

 

He definitely agrees that our policies (again, we can NOT speak for all policies) DO require covering all 'payments' (refundable or not).

I do appreciate your answering my question, earlier, but I called insuremytrip.com again today and again got information that directly contradicts what you're saying. Non-refundable only. Anything non-refundable before the first day of the trip. Do not include any refundable amounts.

 

I'm sorry about the discomfort about the matter, but you can call insuremytrip.com yourself if you want. Check out the instructions they provide on their website. I've attached a screenshot to this posting. So far, you are the only person saying what you're saying, and although my initial read of some of the wording of a couple of the provisions of one policy agreed with what you're saying, I have been assured now a couple of times that that's just poor wording and the very clear wording in the screenshot below is accurate.

 

As I'm getting additional instances of the same answer I'm getting more confident in picking a policy. I'm leaning toward Nationwide's Choice Cruise policy. I have the question out to one more person who has no vested interest. If that jives with what I've been told by insuremytrip.com, I probably will purchase from them.

 

In all major policies I have seen it is full cost of pre-paid, non refundable. Does not include fully refundable. If anyone wants to over-insure, that is their prerogative and no insurance company will deny a claim saying "you bought insurance for more than you needed to".

 

Tricky areas are: Hotel costs that become NR a day or two before arriving (include those). Flight costs that are NR, but changeable. (I include full cost, some people only include change fees).

 

If you are worried about incidental prepaid costs, like excursions, don't. Upon filing a claim, nobody combs through your credit card spending to see what else you may have spent money on...it's only what you put on the claim form.

 

Insurance comes in $500 blocks, just make sure you are in the right block with major costs (cruise, hotel, air). What insurance companies want is for you to include all the big ticket items, and not to insure your cruise at half of its value and still want PEC coverage.

 

Incidental things like excursions, or transfers are minor, and if you forgot to add them into your coverage, simply (a) don't claim them in case of filing a claim or (b) bump your coverage up to the next $500 block to cover them.

In all major policies I have seen it is full cost of pre-paid, non refundable. Does not include fully refundable. If anyone wants to over-insure, that is their prerogative and no insurance company will deny a claim saying "you bought insurance for more than you needed to".

Thanks for posting that. It does send even a seasoned forum reader like me for a spin to see posters post so forcefully something that runs counter to all other indications.

 

Tricky areas are: Hotel costs that become NR a day or two before arriving (include those). Flight costs that are NR, but changeable. (I include full cost, some people only include change fees). If you are worried about incidental prepaid costs, like excursions, don't. Upon filing a claim, nobody combs through your credit card spending to see what else you may have spent money on...it's only what you put on the claim form.

Hmm... the one eyeopener for me were prepaid excursions. They turn non-refundable three days before departure on some cruise lines so it seems to me that their value should be included (though I suppose you could add them to the policy four days prior to departure, eh? You don't save any money on the insurance that way but you can delay the part of the premium associated to those costs that way I suppose.)

My TA when I buy insurance recommends rounding up the total cost to the next thousand even if 100 above the lower level.

 

 

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Added costs could be -for instance- the hotel you booked with that great rate. Sometimes these sale rates are non - refundable. Could also be some excursions that require payment upon reservation and could be non refundable, etc. these may not have been in your original trip coat estimate. You can add them later and pay for the additional insurance at that time.

 

 

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No. It was an explicit part of the conversation. What she told me it's different than what you're saying.

 

It wasn't unclear because of a lack of understanding. It now appears that it was unclear because it is unclear.

 

 

I think Steve would be a little bit concerned about his associates giving information different from what he would give. If I do get different information from Steve then that would result in me having to little confidence in the brokerage overall to trust buying the insurance there.

 

What I'm hoping is that Steve's associate was correct (that what Geezer understood is not correct) and Steve confirms that.

 

This message may have been entered using voice recognition. Please excuse any typos.

 

The insurance policies we've had before, booked so that there was a pre-existing conditions waiver, were from two different sites, neither of them Steve's and those brokers concurred with what you're saying -- that refundable amounts are not included in the fare amount being insured.

He definitely agrees that our policies (again, we can NOT speak for all policies) DO require covering all 'payments' (refundable or not).

 

We also go through Steve at tripinsurancestore and have used Travel Insured several times. Have spoken with Steve and Becky quite a few times with questions about what does/doesn't need to be insured to maintain the pre-existing waiver.

 

You only need to insure your pre-paid and non-refundable expenses. So anything that you have already paid (not just guaranteed) that would not be refunded to you if you were hit by a bus as you were pulling out of your driveway to start your trip.

 

The tricky part comes when you leave a couple days before your cruise and your hotel or other non-refundable expenses hit your card a couple days after you have departed in case you are a no show. So now it is not pre-paid (prior to leaving your home) and is not refundable. This meets the criteria of non-refundable but not pre-paid so, to my understanding, would not be covered and does not have to be insured.

 

Travel Insurance only covers anything that you cannot be reimbursed for from another source. Whether it be through a refund from the cruise line, an excursion provider/hotel, etc or, if your policy is a secondary policy, after your applicable primary health, home owner's, etc policy has paid.

 

There are some gray areas that still puzzle me as to whether or not to include them. In that case I tend to err on the side of caution and bump up into the next $500 bracket of coverage and it's usually not all that much more.

 

A link to some pretty good info on the pre-existing medical coverage waiver from Steve's site.... https://tripinsurancestore.com/how-travel-insurance-pre-existing-medical-conditions-coverage-works/

 

Hope this helps a little.

 

It's all really kind of confusing. Good advice also that, when in doubt, talk to the professionals.

 

Edited to add: Some of the expenses that you don't necessarily have to insure "may" come in to play under trip interruption insurance. I just haven't personally researched that as much. Also, in order to have the pre-existing condition waiver for most, but not all, policies you must purchase the insurance within so many days (varies by company) of putting your deposit down for the cruise, even though the deposit is (most times) refundable.

Edited August 21, 2017 by SeasideMemories